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Mike O'Malley

Michael Edward O'Malley (born October 31, 1966) is an American actor and writer who has appeared in many films and television series. Born in Boston and raised in New Hampshire, O'Malley hosted the early 1990s children's game show Nickelodeon Guts before moving to Los Angeles later that decade to star in his own sitcom for NBC called The Mike O'Malley Show. He is probably best known for his role as Jimmy Hughes on the hit CBS series Yes, Dear that aired from October 2, 2000, to February 15, 2006. He was nominated for an Emmy Award for his role as Burt Hummel on the Fox series Glee.

Mike is a published playwright whose plays include Three Years From Thirty and Diverting Devotion. He adapted another play called Searching for Certainty for Peter Askin's film Certainty, which premiered at the Boston Film Festival in 2011. O'Malley is also a writer on Showtime's hit drama Shameless.

O'Malley was the creator and an executive producer of the Starz series Survivor's Remorse, which ran for four seasons between 2014 and 2017.

His first role came as the host of Nickelodeon children's game shows Get the Picture and Nickelodeon Guts (later Global GUTS). On the advice of colleague and friend Marc Summers, he moved to Los Angeles after the cancellation of GUTS to further pursue his acting career. O'Malley starred in Life with Roger, a series which aired from 1996 to 1997. In 1999, two episodes of The Mike O'Malley Show aired before the show was canceled; thirteen episodes were filmed. During the 1990s, he also appeared as "The Rick", a popular character in a series of ads for the ESPN network.

In 2006, O'Malley made a guest appearance on My Name Is Earl, as a police officer with bowling aspirations, and made several more guest appearances on the show. In 2008, O'Malley appeared in the NBC drama My Own Worst Enemy.

In 2008, O'Malley became the spokesman for Time Warner Cable's digital cable. In 2009, O'Malley began playing the recurring character, Burt Hummel, the father of a gay student, on Glee. It is a role which has pleasantly surprised him[2] and lead to Entertainment Weekly's Tim Stack to say, "If Mike O'Malley doesn't win an Emmy for playing Burt Hummel, I will be sorely disappointed."[3]Chris Colfer, who plays Burt's son Kurt, has credited his off-screen relationship with O'Malley with improving the quality of their scenes together.[4]

O'Malley is a playwright with two of his plays, Three Years from Thirty and Diverting Devotion, having been published and produced Off-Broadway. In 2003, a third play, Searching for Certainty was produced in Los Angeles.

He later wrote the screenplay for the film Certainty, which is based on Searching for Certainty. The movie began production on May 24, 2010, directed by Peter Askin and produced by O'Malley, along with Will Battersby and Per Melita.[8]Certainty premiered at the Boston Film Festival on September 16, 2011, where it won the Best Screenplay, Best Editing, and Best Ensemble Cast awards.[9]

A long time fan of Boston band Buffalo Tom, O'Malley is a close friend of lead singer Bill Janovitz. They have often supported causes together.[14][15] O'Malley requested that the band create a title song for his own short-lived television show The Mike O'Malley Show, as well as for the sitcom Yes, Dear which he co-starred on. According to O'Malley, his love of the band was shared with his wife and was "the glue" that kept them together during their long distance relationship.[16]